My Plan Has Always Been to Wait Until Age 70 to Claim Social Security. Here's What Changed.

The best-laid plans have a way of changing as circumstances change.

No matter when you plan to retire, it's important to learn if the budget works on paper.

If you had asked me this time last year, I would have told you that I'm absolutely, without a doubt, waiting until age 70 to claim Social Security benefits. Today, I find myself in a different place, with a totally different plan. Here's why.

I can't begin to tell you how weird it was to hear my husband say he was considering retirement. He's always been the most active, driven person I know, and I couldn't imagine him giving up the challenges he faced every day at work. I was adamantly against it for a while, primarily because I was so set on maximizing Social Security benefits by delaying our claims.

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As someone who lives and dies by strategically planning for everything -- including retirement -- I didn't want to react until I had time to rework the budget. I was surprised to learn that the budget works on paper.

Somehow, while I was busy contributing every extra dollar I could find into retirement accounts, I lost track of how much we'd saved. We're not rich by any means, but the money we have is estimated to last more than 30 years, as long as I withdraw 4% in the first year and increase that amount by 1.5% to 2% annually after that.

And here's where Social Security comes in. When he first started thinking about retirement, my husband wasn't that far off from full retirement age (FRA). If he could wait that long to make his claim, he'd receive 100% of his Primary Insurance Amount (PAI). By making the claim then, we could postpone taking more than necessary from our retirement accounts, allowing them more time to grow.